MEPs make Merkel fume

WikiLeaks reveals that Germany's chancellor was not happy with SWIFT vote.

The diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks suggest that Philip Murphy, the US ambassador in Berlin, has a fine appreciation for the nuances of being a member of the European Parliament.

He reported in February that Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, was “privately angry” with German MEPs who voted against the SWIFT agreement on the sharing of bank data with US counter-terrorism authorities.

Merkel was “worried that Washington will view the EP’s veto as a sign that Europe does not take the terrorist threat seriously”.

Ole von Beust, Hamburg’s mayor at the time and a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told Murphy that the chancellor had been “very, very angry” with the MEPs, angrier than Beust had ever seen her.

“Beust said that the chancellor had personally lobbied German MEPs from the CDU/CSU parties to support the agreement, but that most of these MEPs ended up voting against the agreement anyway,” Murphy reported.

The cable mentioned four MEPs: Jan Philipp Albrecht, a Green; Werner Langen, head of the CDU/CSU group in the Parliament; Martin Schulz, head of the Socialists and Democrats group; and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a Liberal.

Murphy pointed out that many MEPs voted against the SWIFT agreement out of data-protection concerns, but also because they “saw this as an early opportunity to exert their new post-Lisbon powers and send a message to the Commission and Council”.

Moreover, the “almost complete absence of public statements by German leadership in support of the agreement resulted in a situation in which MEPs received no political coverage supporting a positive vote and saw little political cost for a ‘No’ vote”.